Beltway sniper attacks

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Locations of the 15 sniper attacks numbered chronologically. Note: No one was injured at location "2".
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Locations of the 15 sniper attacks numbered chronologically. Note: No one was injured at location "2".

The Beltway sniper attacks took place during three weeks of October 2002 in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Ten people were killed and three others critically injured by spree killers in and around Washington, D.C., in various locations throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia. It was later learned that the rampage apparently began the month before with murders and robbery in Lousiana, Alabama, and Georgia which had resulted in 3 deaths. An earlier spree by the pair had killed victims in California, Arizona, and Texas, for a total of 16 deaths so far.

The shootings finally ended on October 24, when police arrested John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo at a highway rest area off of Interstate 70 near Myersville, Maryland, after receiving two telephone tips from a trucker and another alert motorist. It was later learned that the three-week-long rampage was motivated, at least in part, by a plot to extort $10 million from the U.S. government.

Charges in Virginia against the pair were tried first. In 2004, Muhammad was sentenced to death and Malvo to several sentences of life imprisonment without parole in Virginia for several of the attacks. Many more criminal charges are pending against each man, although a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roper v. Simmons in March 2005 effectively precludes a death penalty for Malvo. Muhammad's death penalty was affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court on April 22, 2005. While Muhammad was awaiting execution in Virginia, in the fall of 2005, he and Malvo were extradited to Montgomery County, Maryland where the most incidents took place to face trial, after which, they will be returned to Virginia under an agreement between the two states.

Civil legal action also resulted. Neither shooter was legally allowed to acquire firearms in the U.S. The dealer responsible for the rifle used in the attacks had an extensive record of firearms violations, and had not reported the gun missing (after it had apparently been shoplifted by Malvo) as required by law. A civil lawsuit alleging negligence against both the gun dealer and the manufacturer who made and distributed the weapon resulted in a US$2.5 million out-of-court settlement for survivors and families of victims.

Contents

[edit] Snipers

Lee Boyd Malvo
Lee Boyd Malvo

Authorities initially attributed the attacks to a lone sniper, dubbed by journalists the "Beltway Sniper," the "D.C. Sniper," the "Washington Sniper," the "Serial Sniper" or the "Tarot Card Killer."

After their capture, there was much confusion about the names of the two men. The older of the pair, born John Allen Williams, age 41 at the time of capture, had joined the Nation of Islam some years earlier and changed his name to John Allen Muhammad in October 2001. The younger man was born Lee Boyd Malvo, but also calls himself John Lee Malvo and had posed as Muhammad's son (17 years old at the time of his arrest). Malvo's actual relationship with Muhammad was initially unclear, although it was later learned that Malvo's mother had been involved in some illegal activity with Muhammad in Antigua.

[edit] Attacks

John Allen Muhammad
John Allen Muhammad

The shootings began October 2, 2002, with a series of five fatal shootings in 15 hours in Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburban county north of Washington. They continued for the next three weeks in the Washington metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 south to within 15 miles of Richmond, Virginia. Police received messages left at the murder locations and believed, correctly, that the killer worked in concert with another person.

The shootings occurred at gas stations and in parking lots outside supermarkets, restaurants, and schools in a rough circular pattern around Washington. The victims were apparently selected at random, crossing racial, gender, and socioeconomic categories. The locations of the attacks always had close freeway access. It is believed the shooter used the circular Capital Beltway to get from place to place, although several of the attacks occurred along Interstate 95 south of the Beltway in Virginia.

The attacks were carried out with a stolen Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle equipped with a red-dot sight at ranges of between 50 and over 100 yards. It should be noted that this rifle is not generally considered a sniper rifle even though it is used in long distance shooting competitions for ranges up to 600 yards. The ability and distance of the shots do not meet the skill sets of a military sniper. The word sniper was used by the media. None of the shots involved in the killings were particularly difficult and many professionals in the law enforcement and military communities resented the use of the term "sniper" to describe the shooters. The XM-15 rifle came from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, Washington. Bull's Eye had been noted for violating firearms regulations in the past. It had not reported the rifle as missing, as required by federal law.

[edit] Investigation

The investigation was publicly headed by Montgomery County, Maryland Police Chief Charles A. Moose, with assistance from the FBI and police departments in other jurisdictions where killings and woundings had taken place.

Police responded within minutes to reports of attacks during the three weeks of the sniper attacks, cordoning off nearby roads and highways and inspecting all drivers, thereby grinding traffic to a halt for hours at a time throughout parts of one of America's largest metropolitan areas.

Eyewitness accounts of the attacks were mostly confused and spotty. Hotlines set up for the investigation were flooded with tips, as was the post office box set up for tips by mail. The most common tip was that the shooters were driving a boxy white van, which ultimately proved erroneous.

The shooter attempted to engage the police in a dialog, compelling Moose to tell the media cryptic messages intended for the sniper. At several scenes Tarot cards were left as calling cards, including one Death card upon which was written "Dear Policeman, I am God. Do not tell the media about this." This information was leaked to the press. Later scenes had long handwritten notes carefully sealed inside plastic bags, including a rambling one that demanded $10,000,000 and threatened the lives of children in the area.

At one point, a telephone call from the shooter(s) was traced to a pay telephone at a gasoline station in Henrico County, Virginia. Police missed the suspects by a matter of a few minutes, and initially detained occupants of a van at another pay telephone at the same intersection.

During the period of the attacks, the North American media devoted enormous amounts of air time and newspaper space to news of each new attack. By the middle of October 2002, all-news television networks were providing live coverage of the aftermath of each new attack, with the coverage often lasting for hours at a time. The Fox show "America's Most Wanted" even devoted an entire episode to the shooters in hopes of aiding in their capture.

Despite an apparent lack of progress publicly, federal authorities were making significant headway in their investigation and developed leads in Washington state, Alabama, and New Jersey. They learned that Muhammad's ex-wife, who had obtained a protective order against him, lived near the capital beltway in Clinton, a community in suburban Prince George's County, Maryland. Information was also developed about an automobile purchased in New Jersey by Muhammad. Much to their shock, police discovered that the New Jersey license plates issued to Muhammad on the 1990 Chevrolet Caprice had been checked by radio patrol cars several times near shooting locations in various jurisdictions in several states, but the car had not been stopped because law enforcement computer networks did not indicate that it was connected to any criminal activity.

Authorities were quick to issue a media alert to the public to be on the lookout for a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice sedan. For the public, as well as for law enforcement agencies throughout the region, this was a major change from the mysterious "white box truck" earlier sought based upon reported sightings.

On October 24, police arrested Muhammad and Malvo at a rest area on Interstate 70 near Myersville, Maryland, after receiving two separate tips from citizens who reported seeing a parked, occupied car that matched the description distributed by the media. The former police car, referred to as a "killing machine" by senior law enforcement officials, Col. Robert J. Smaegelov and Maj. Richard M. Spencer. [1], had been specially configured with a firing port so that the killer could shoot inconspicuously while lying with his lower body in the cabin and his upper body in the trunk.

[edit] 911 Dispatcher Uninterested

On the morning of October 15th, Malvo dialed 9-1-1 and briefly spoke with a Rockville, Md. police dispatcher. "Good morning," a male's voice began. "Don't say anything. Just listen. We're the people that are causing the killing in your area. Look on the tarot card. It says, 'Call me God. Do not release to the press.' We have called you three times before, trying to set up negotiations. We have got no response. People have died ... "

"Sir, Mont ... ," the dispatcher interjected. "Get your people ... ," the man continued. "We're not investigating the crime," she said, referring the caller to police in Montgomery County, where the sniper task force was based. "Do you want the number?" Malvo then hung up.

[edit] Timeline

  • September 21: Claudine Parker, a liquor store clerk in Montgomery, Alabama, is shot and killed during a robbery. Her coworker Kellie Adams is also injured. Evidence found at the crime scene eventually ties this killing to the Beltway attacks and allows authorities to identify Muhammad and Malvo as suspects, although this connection is not made until October 8.
  • October 2:
    • 5:20 pm: A shot is fired through a window of a Michaels Craft Store in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County, Maryland. No one is injured.
    • 6:05 pm: The first Beltway-area sniper shooting occurs on October 2 in Wheaton in Montgomery County. The first victim is James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst who dies in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store.
  • October 3: The next wave of shootings occurs in a 15-hour period.
    • 7:41 am: James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper known as "Sonny," is shot dead in Montgomery County near Rockville, Maryland. Buchanan is shot while mowing the grass at the Fitzgerald Auto Mall.
    • 8:12 am: 54-year-old part-time taxi driver Premkumar Walekar is killed in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County while pumping gasoline into his taxi at a Mobil station at Aspen Hill Road and Connecticut Avenue.
    • 8:37 am: Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper, dies while reading a book on a bench shortly after she exits a bus. Ramos is killed at the Leisure World Shopping Center in Aspen Hill.
    • 9:58 am: 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera dies while vacuuming her Dodge Caravan at a Shell station in Kensington, Maryland.
    • 9:15 pm: Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old retired carpenter, is shot while walking on Georgia Avenue at Kalmia Road, in Washington, D.C. He dies less than an hour later.
  • October 7, 8:09 am: Iran Brown, a 13-year-old boy, is wounded as he arrives at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland, in Prince George's County. (Brown's name was at first concealed from the public, but has since been revealed.)
  • October 14 9:15 pm: 47-year-old Linda Franklin, an FBI intelligence analyst who was a resident of Arlington County, Virginia, is shot dead at about 9:15 p.m. after she finishes shopping at a Home Depot in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Falls Church. The police receive a supposedly very good lead after the October 14 shooting, but it is later determined that the witness was inside at the time and was lying. The witness was arrested for interfering with the investigation.
  • October 19 8:00 pm: 37-year-old Jeffrey Hopper is shot in a parking lot near the Ponderosa steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia, about 90 miles south of Washington near Interstate 95. Authorities discover a 4-page letter from the shooter in the woods.
  • October 21: Richmond-area police arrest two men, one with a white van, outside a gas station. The men turn out to be illegal immigrants with no connection to the shooter and they are remanded to the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
  • October 22, 5:56 am: Bus driver Conrad Johnson is shot dead while standing on the steps of his bus in Aspen Hill. Chief Moose releases part of the content of one of the shooter's communications, in which he declares, "Your children are not safe, anywhere, at any time."
  • October 23: Ballistics experts confirm Johnson as the 10th fatality in the sniper attacks.
    • In a yard in Tacoma, Washington, near to a sniper school operated by the United States Army, police search with metal detectors for bullets, shell casings, or other evidence which may link to the shooters. A tree stump believed to have been used for target practice is seized.
  • October 24: John Allen Muhammad (born John Allen Williams) and Lee Boyd Malvo (also known as John Lee Malvo) are found sleeping in their car, a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, at a Maryland rest stop, and arrested on federal weapons charges. Police were tipped off by a trucker who noticed the parked car and also received another call from an alert motorist. A .223-caliber weapon and bipod are found in a bag in Muhammad's car. Ballistics tests later conclusively link the seized rifle to 11 of the 14 bullets recovered from earlier attacks. Muhammad was previously a member of the United States National Guard and later the United States Army, where he earned medals for expert marksmanship under his given name of John Allen Williams.

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Criminal prosecutions

[edit] Virginia trials

Virginia authorities were selected for initial prosecutions. In accordance with United States law, each man was provided free legal counsel at public expense since they were both indigent. Change of venue requests by defense attorneys were granted, and the first trials were held in the independent cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach in southeastern Virginia, more than 100 miles from the closest alleged attack (in Ashland, Virginia).

During their trials in the fall of 2003, involving two of the victims in Virginia, Muhammad and Malvo were each found guilty of murder and weapons charges. The jury in Muhammad's case recommended that he be sentenced to death, while Malvo's jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole over the death penalty. The judges concurred in both cases. Alabama law enforcement authorities allege that the snipers engaged in a series of previously unconnected attacks prior to October 2 in Montgomery, Alabama. Other charges are also pending in Maryland and other communities in Virginia.

After the initial convictions and sentencing, Will Jarvis, a Virginia prosecutor in Prince William County, stated he would wait to decide whether to try Malvo on capital charges in his jurisdiction until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on whether juveniles may be subject to the penalty of execution. While that decision in an unrelated case was still pending before the high court, in October 2004, under a plea-agreement, Malvo plead guilty in another case in Spotsylvania County, Virginia for another murder to avoid a possible death penalty sentence, and agreed to additional sentencing of life imprisonment without parole. Malvo had yet to face trial in Prince William County, Virginia.

In March 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution for crimes committed when under the age of 18. In light of this Supreme Court decision, the prosecutors in Prince William County have decided not pursue the charges against Malvo, after all. Prosecutors in Maryland, Louisiana and Alabama were still interested in putting both Malvo and Muhammad on trial. As Malvo was 17 when he committed the crimes, he will no longer face the death penalty, but still may be extradited to Alabama, Louisiana, and other states for prosecution. At the time of the Roper v. Simmons ruling, Malvo was 20 years old, and was held at Virginia's maximum security Red Onion State Prison in Pound in Wise County, Virginia.

Muhammad's death penalty was affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court on April 22, 2005, when it ruled that he could be sentenced to death because the murder was part of an act of terrorism. This line of reasoning was based on the handwritten note demanding $10,000,000 dollars. The court rejected an argument by defense lawyers that Muhammad could not be sentenced to death because he was not the triggerman in the killings linked to him and Malvo.

"Muhammad, with his sniper team partner, Malvo, randomly selected innocent victims" Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald Lemons wrote in the decision. "With calculation, extensive planning, premeditation and ruthless disregard for life, Muhammad carried out his cruel scheme of terror."

There has also been speculation that authorities in Virginia may proceed with what is termed a "backup case" against Muhammad. The death sentence is under appeal. It is not clear how many other jurisdictions will be allowed to try him on the capital charges they have pending before he is executed. Prior to extradition to Maryland, he was held at the maximum security Sussex I State Prison near Waverly in Sussex County, Virginia, which houses Virginia's death row inmates.

[edit] Maryland trials

In May 2005, Virginia and Maryland announced that they had reached agreements to allow Maryland to proceed with prosecuting charges there, where the most shootings occurred. There were media reports that Malvo and his legal team have been willing earlier to negotiate his cooperation, and he waived extradition to Maryland.

Muhammad and his legal team responded by fighting extradition to Maryland. Muhammad's legal team was ultimately unsuccessful, and extradition was ordered by a Virginia judge in August 2005.

Maryland has agreed to transfer Muhammad and Malvo back to the Commonwealth of Virginia after their trials. A date for Muhammad's pending execution in Virginia has not been set.

Malvo pled guilty to six murders and confessed to others in other states while being interviewed in Maryland and while testifying there against Muhammad. Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

[edit] Regulatory, civil actions

According to the Seattle Times in a story of April 20, 2003, Muhammad had honed his marksmanship at Bull's Eye's firing range. The newspaper also reported that Malvo told investigators that he shoplifted the 35-inch-long carbine from the "supposedly secure store." [2]

According to U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) officials, the store and its owners had a long history of firearms sales and records violations and a file 283 pages thick. In July 2003, the ATF revoked the federal firearms license of Brian Borgelt, a former Staff Sgt. with the U.S. Army Rangers and owner of Bull's Eye Shooter Supply. Later that month he transferred ownership of the store to a friend and continued to own the building and operate the adjacent shooting gallery. [3]

On January 16, 2003, the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, on behalf of the families of many of the victims of the Beltway sniper attacks who were killed (including Hong Im Ballenger, "Sonny" Buchanan, Jr., Linda Franklin, Conrad Johnson, Sarah Ramos and James L. Premkumar Walekar) as well as two victims who survived the shooting (Rupinder "Benny" Oberoi and 13-year old Iran Brown) filed a civil lawsuit against Bull's Eye Shooter Supply and Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. of Windham, Maine, the gun distributor and manufacturer that made the rifle used in the crime spree, as well as Borgelt, Muhammad and Malvo. Muhammad, who had a criminal record of domestic battery, and Malvo, a minor, were each legally prohibited from purchasing firearms.

The suit claimed that Bull's Eye Shooter Supply ran its gun store in Tacoma, Washington, "in such a grossly negligent manner that scores of its guns routinely 'disappeared' from its store and it kept such shoddy records that it could not even account for the Bushmaster rifle used in the sniper shootings when asked by federal agents for records of sale for the weapon." It was alleged that the dealer could not account for hundreds of guns received from manufacturers in the years immediately prior to the Beltway sniper attacks. It was also claimed that Bull's Eye continued to sell guns in the same irresponsible manner even after Muhammad and Malvo were caught and found to have acquired the weapon there. Bushmaster was included in the suit because it allegedly continued to sell guns to Bull's Eye as a dealer despite an awareness of its record-keeping violations.

The case had been set for trial in April 2005. After losing several decisions as the case made its way through the courts, Bull's Eye and Bushmaster contributed to an out-of-court settlement of US$2.5 million. Bushmaster also agreed to educate its dealers on safer business practices. The settlement is the first time a gun manufacturer has ever paid damages for negligence leading to criminal violence and the largest settlement by a gun dealer ever.[citation needed]

After the settlement was announced, WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., reported that Sonia Wills, mother of victim Conrad Johnson, said her family took part in the lawsuit more to send a message than to collect money. "I think a message was delivered that you should be responsible and accountable for the actions of irresponsible people when you make these guns and put them in their hands," she said. [4]

[edit] TV movie, book

On October 17, 2003, on USA Network's USA cable station, a TV movie was shown that was based on the events that occurred in 2002's sniper incident. The movie's name was D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear. Also in 2003 a book written by former Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose was published.

[edit] Effects on Society

[edit] Fear, targets outdoors

During the weeks that the attacks occurred, fear of the apparently random shootings generated a great deal of public apprehension, especially at filling stations and the parking lots of large stores. People pumping gas at gas stations would walk around their cars quickly, hoping that they would be a harder target to hit. After the specific threat against children was delivered, many school groups curtailed field trips and outdoors athletic activities based upon safety concerns. Extra police officers were placed in schools because of this fear. As well, Joel Schumacher's film Phone Booth, though it bore little resemblance to the shootings beyond the villain's being a sniper, was deemed potentially upsetting enough that its release was delayed for months.

Reportedly, when news of a sniper attack made the nightly news, people that had been "hiding" in their homes would make a large exodus to their local gas station, which they had been avoiding as long as possible in order to not be a target. It is not known if this is an urban legend, or an actual change in behavior for a significant portion of the local population during the affected time.

[edit] Profiling

Of longer impact, the Beltway Sniper Attacks may have permanently damaged the perception of mass murderers as primarily disgruntled and/or mentally unbalanced middle-aged white men. Eyewitness reports gave descriptions as "a crazy white guy armed with an AK-47, driving about in a boxy white van," when in fact the shooters were two black men driving about in an old blue Chevy sedan. There were even reports that police were searching for a white supremacist[5][6].

[edit] Similar incidents

[edit] References

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